I know I do since day one. Would the author care to elaborate what exactly he is talking about?

I'd say a good 40% of my music library I still had to scan in by hand since either the barcode was not recognized by their database, or the database included the albums without the artwork!

All I know is that the widget spotlight search NEVER worked for me, so I quit using it in disgust.

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Anonymous wrote:
I know I do since day one. Would the author care to elaborate what exactly he is talking about?

I haven't had any luck scanning the barcodes from regular off-the-shelf comic books (although I'm sure true comic book collectors wonder why I would bother with a barcoded issue). You can enter issue information manually, but that takes some of the fun out of Delicious Library, and it doesn't include cover art unless you locate a digital version and add it yourself.

Trade comic paperbacks, which are available from Amazon, scan in just fine as books.

Delicious Monster's Will Shipley has mentioned that full comic book support is a popular request, so maybe we'll see that soon. The problem, from what I understand, is that regular comic books are in Amazon's database, so the DL team needs to find an alternative for looking up the information.

Jeff

The sw is a JOKE of insanely great proportions.

For many paperbacks and such, if the scan does not retrieve data, then look inside the front cover of the book, where there is frequently the "correct" bar scan code. That one usually works.

I would assume that Delicious would have to setup some sort of agreement with Human Computing which publishes the now Windows only Comic Base. They've scanned in every comic book in existence and soon to launch some sort of comic book auction site (i.e. ebay).

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Guest wrote:
The sw is a JOKE of insanely great proportions.

Care to jusstify this statement?

This is a wonderful piece of software and I used it since it came out. I wouldn't say it has revolutionized the way I keep track of my stuff, but it sure is a lot more fun browsing though it.

If you can't find a use for it, that doesn't necessarily mean, no-one else can. I wouldn't want to live without it now.

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Guest wrote:

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Guest wrote:
The sw is a JOKE of insanely great proportions.

Care to jusstify this statement?

Check the ratings and comments on VersionTracker to get an idea of what the first Guest meant. Then, compare the raings and comments for a major competitor, the "pedia" applications by Bruji, DVDpedia, Bookpedia, CDpedia, Gamepedia, and AmazonPedia.

DVDpedia has been downloaded from VersionTracker more than Delicious Library has. DVDpedia, Bookpedia and CDpedia can be bought as a bundle for $39, essentially the price of Delicious Library. However, if you only need one, you can buy it for $18. Delicious Library is $40, period.

Part of the problem with Delicious Library is that it tries to do too much. Books, CDs, DVDs, and video games are different and should have different fields in the database. ("Cast" and "Director" would be inappropriate for books, for example.) Some of the complaints have been related to the bloated size of the database, which slows it down for some people.

The Delicious Library folks also sell a rather expensive ($175), but very nice, barcode scanner. (It uses Bluetooth.) The Bruji applications, on the other hand, work nicely with the infamous "CueCat" scanner, which can be bought for $15-20 or so on eBay. (Be sure to get the USB version.) I have a CueCat and it worked right away with the Bruji 'pedias. It's wired, so I have to bring the items to the computer (or I can use my PowerBook), but $150+ extra is a lot to pay for minor convenience. Most of the time, I use the keyboard, as it's faster for adding a few items.

"May run slow on older Macs"

I run a Cube with 576 MB RAM and 800 books in the library. Works great for me.

- Thomas

While I listen carefully when people complain about software I've written, I'm also pretty certain I outsell *pedia by 10-100x. So, you have to take net rantings with a grain of salt.

You seem like kind of a hater, gslusher. I mean, you don't even mention that Delicious Library uses new Macs' built-in iSight scanner to scan barcodes, which is even cheaper than your CueCat. And, despite taking my iSight source code and claiming it is his own, the *pedia guy hasn't managed to duplicate this feat.

Also, you complain that "Director" would be inappropriate for books, and ignore that, in fact, there is no "Director" field when you're looking at a book in Delicious Library. It's like you didn't look at our software at all, you just, maybe, had some kind of strange love for the *pedia guys and tried to find reasons to hate on DL.

I'm open to reasonable feedback on how to improve my program, but when it's "hey, support this obsolete piece of hardware that some hackers by on eBar instead of using the camera that comes bundled with the majority of Macs sold today" and "don't show this field that you already don't show" then I have trouble following it.

Yours,
-Wil Shipley
Chief Monster, Delicious Monster Software

A DVDpedia user posted in our forum about this review and that he left his opinion that DVDpedia is better so that Mac users would find out about our product; which I thought was very kind of him. I followed over to read the review and the comment. What I did not expect is to be insulted by Mr. Shipley a fellow developer; whom I have never met.

We support both the CueCat and external and built-in iSights. Delicious Library does perform slightly better with the built-in iSights. (Because the built-in iSights have a fixed focus it's harder to interpret the blurry barcode, and we are updating our code).

Our code for reading barcodes from the iSight is open source and shared with other developers, so they might use it in their projects. Most of it is based on Apple's sample code Sequence Grabber. There is a section of code for setting the focus on the external iSights (obsolete for built-in iSights) that was graciously shared with the community by Mr. Shipley on the QuickTime mailing list. When I was writing the code I had not yet thought about sharing it and it was such a small section of code that I did not add the source. My mistake for not adding the attribution comment when sharing it. I will update the code with a link to the QuickTime list post in the next version. If you felt so strongly Mr. Shipley a simple email would have sufficed. My email address is on the Bruji support page if you would like to get in touch.

On to what this comment section is really about. Is DVDpedia better than Delicious Library? Of course; just like Delicious is better with the built-in iSight scanning DVDpedia is better than Delicious in many other areas. Since my opinion is biased, I urge you to download DVDpedia, Bookpedia, CDpedia and Gamepedia and try them out for yourselves. As to which program you like best, only you can tell. If for some rare reason you don't find our Pedia products superior, unlike Mr. Shipley we are open to all kinds of feedback. (A joke at Mr. Shipley's expense, but after calling me a thief it's the least I can do.)

Yours,
Conor
Top Dog, http://www.bruji.com/

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Anonymous wrote:
While I listen carefully when people complain about software I've written, I'm also pretty certain I outsell *pedia by 10-100x. So, you have to take net rantings with a grain of salt.

You seem like kind of a hater, gslusher. I mean, you don't even mention that Delicious Library uses new Macs' built-in iSight scanner to scan barcodes, which is even cheaper than your CueCat. And, despite taking my iSight source code and claiming it is his own, the *pedia guy hasn't managed to duplicate this feat.

Also, you complain that "Director" would be inappropriate for books, and ignore that, in fact, there is no "Director" field when you're looking at a book in Delicious Library. It's like you didn't look at our software at all, you just, maybe, had some kind of strange love for the *pedia guys and tried to find reasons to hate on DL.

I'm open to reasonable feedback on how to improve my program, but when it's "hey, support this obsolete piece of hardware that some hackers by on eBar instead of using the camera that comes bundled with the majority of Macs sold today" and "don't show this field that you already don't show" then I have trouble following it.

Yours,
-Wil Shipley
Chief Monster, Delicious Monster Software

Sales are not always an indication of quality. They can, instead, indicate better marketing. Another application (not DL) that happens to be sold on the Apple Online Store and is commercially distributed undoubtedly sells more copies than a shareware competitor that consistently gets higher ratings. (I've used both and agree with the consensus.) DL has won some awards that surely help in marketing, but, did those giving the awards consider other, similar applications based on features, rather than graphic design?

I'm not a "hater." Why do you say that? I mentioned that DL has lower ratings on VersionTracker than the 'pedias. It does. Those are ratings by users, many of whom have used more than one application, unlike (apparently) some reviewers.

I did make one error, for which I apologize: the example of the fields does not apply to the VIEWS, but it does apply to Exported shelves that contain both CDs and DVDs, for example. (More on exports below.)

FWIW, I didn't say that DL is a "JOKE of insanely great proportions." It's certainly not--it's a fairly nice application. However, I can show that DL has fewer features than the Bruji 'pedia apps and several limitations, some of which, each by itself, would keep me from buying it unless there were nothing else available.

BTW: DL supports the modified CueCat, too, so, I guess you "support this obsolete piece of hardware that some hackers by on eBar ..." In your last paragraph, you could have said, "DL supports the modified CueCat, too." That would have made a more positive impression.

-------

I have tried DL several times (at least 4 times, including the latest version tonight). I almost bought it--until I found DVDpedia, etc. (I've noted that some reviewers act/write as if there is nothing else like DL. One--who shall remain nameless--was surprised when I pointed out the Bruji apps to him.)

I did a comparison tonight, though I couldn't compare the behavior with large databases. (I have nearly 1900 DVDs, for example.) DL is fairly easy to use, especially if one has used a similar application, so it didn't take long--that's a definite plus! I found some advantages to DL, but DVDpedia (the Bruji app I used for the comparison) has more features and flexibility. Below are some comparisons. Do note that I don't address features that are the same or similar, even if they're very nice.

DL's advantages:

++ DL's iSight implementation is much better than in the Bruji applications. (Supposedly, their software now works with the built-in iSight. The problem was that the built-in iSight does not focus. I cannot verify this, however, as I'm using an iMac G4. I don't know how many people have a Mac with a built-in iSight vs the external iSight.) Most of the time, DL captured the barcode in a few seconds. In some cases, it took almost a minute. In a few cases, it didn't capture the barcode, at all. DVDpedia was slower and not as reliable. iSight scanning is not very useful for me. Due to a shoulder injury, I can't hold a DVD up to the iSight for very long. It's easier for me to put the DVD on the desk and hold the iSight above it. (That wouldn't work with the new iMacs, of course.) The CueCat is even easier. I expect that the scanner you sell would be easier/better, but not $150 better from my standpoint.

++ I like the "Similar Items" tab.

++ DL keeps the results of a Find by Title as a "blank" item. That can be very useful.

+ Some people like the shelf conceit and labels and it is attractive. I don't care one way or another, as I use the list mode exclusively. The 'pedias also have a cover view, but it doesn't use a shelf--just thumbnails, without labels.

+ The voice search sounds like a good option, but I couldn't get it to work. The computer got my voice--I could see the level indicator change, but it didn't recognize any titles. Perhaps that's a limitation of the demo.

Major minuses:

-- No "smart" shelves in DL; DVDpedia has smart collections, like iTunes.

-- All the user-defined shelves in DL have the same columns in list view. (The major collections--Music, Movies, Books, Games--can have their own.) In DVDpedia, each collection can have its own format. One can define the default format, as well.

-- DL exports in only one format and exports ALL the data in each record. The Bruji apps can export to tab-delimited, CSV, and 18+ HTML and RTF templates--or the user can define his/her own. One neat feature in the Bruji apps is that, when you export a collection in CSV or tab-delimited, it only exports the data that is shown in the list view. I use this to great benefit by exporting a "smart" collection of all my DVDs, but showing only the Title. I then import that into Documents to Go to put on my Palm TX so that I have a list of my DVDs with me at all time. I can't do that with DL without tedious manual manipulation (e.g., import the text into a spreadsheet and delete most of the columns, then save as text.) This, for me, is critical.

-- DL's "Find by Title" (or Creator, which isn't clear as to what that is--I was able to use actors' and directors' names) seems to give only 10 results. Is that another limitation of the demo? If this is a limitation of the registered software, DL might not give the result one needs. (Try "Inspector Morse" or "Sherlock Holmes," for example.) The Find by Title results show a tiny cover and the title {and an arrow that opens the related page on Amazon, which has a lot more informataion}. DVDpedia lists all the results and shows the entire expanded info window for the search results, which makes it easier to choose.

-- DL doesn't say which sites it checks (that is in your FAQ, however) and doesn't allow the user to choose. DVDpedia allows the user to choose among 18 sites out of the box and more can be added from the Bruji site. The user can search any site using the gear button in the Add/Edit window. (FWIW, I rather agree with you about IMDb data. I have chosen not to use that, myself, partially because of copyright issues but also because it can have errors, especially if there are multiple movies with the same or similar titles.)


Less important:


- No auto fill in DL. DVDpedia allows the user to define auto fill values for many of the properties, like genres. One can use a pop-up menu or auto fill or type in one that's not in the list.

- Inputting barcodes, etc., by keyboard is a bit more tedious in DL. Bruji's apps have a "multiple entry" window, which is especially useful with a scanner. I don't have to wait for each item to be searched to put in the next. If I get 10 DVDs at one time, I can put them all in, click once, and do something else while they're looked up.

- CDpedia can check the iTunes library to see if songs/albums are on there. It's not that reliable, however, as CDpedia seems to get its track list from a different source (probably Amazon) than iTunes does and any discrepancy will result in a non-match. CDpedia can also play songs it does find. DVDpedia can catalog movies that are on a hard drive and play them, as well.

- In the Bruji apps, the user can choose to ignore foreign articles in title sorts.

- The 'pedias have user-defined custom fields.

- The 'pedias can rebuild their databases, which might help sometimes, e.g., if one has deleted many entries.

- DVDpedia's preferences are much more extensive and customizable than DL's.


Really minor minuses:

- I prefer the iTunes-style UI of DVDpedia, but that's a personal preference. The Bruji "info view" is at the bottom of the window, as in Mail, which gives more room for columns in the list view. It can be hidden or revealed with a single keystroke and adjusted in size (height). In DVDpedia, there are several formats for the info view panel and one can chose which data are dislayed.

- DVDpedia can use the iSight to capture cover art, though I'd never use it for that, as I have a nice all-in-one printer/scanner.

- DVDpedia has a nice-looking "statistics" function, but I'm not sure if it would be very useful.

- The 'pedias can have custom toolbar icons, etc.

That should be enough. Some is opinion, but much is hard fact.


[Edited to take out some typos/spelling errors. It's late/early--about 7 AM, and I've been up working on this for the last 6+ hours. I'm surprised that I'm not laying on the keyboard. ]

{Edited again at 3:30 PM PST to add the bit in {} about the link to Amazon in the DL Find by Title results, which should be useful, though I personally prefer seeing the information directly in the search results. Also fixed another @#($( typu---er, typo.}

Thank you for taking the time to write about DVDpedia; we appreciate it.

I just wanted to mention the often overlooked but powerful linking feature in the Pedias. You can link an unlimited number of things (web reviews, movies, pictures, text files...) to an item in the Pedias.

Also the beautiful fullscreen mode: http://www.bruji.com/howto/fullScreen.html

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wholesale wrote:
Combining debt through home equity loans can be your ticket to better FICO scores. wholesale

This spammer has been reported to the owner of the site, a research lab at UCLA. Apparently, they had a hole in their FTP server that let this sort of stuff get through. The site owner here should ban anonymous postings and require legitimate email addresses.